NEW DELHI: India aims to field a military largely equipped with homegrown capabilities and capable of projecting power across the Indo-Pacific and beyond by 2047, with domestic defence production output expected to rise to six times the present level to Rs 8.8 trillion by then, while arms exports are projected to increase nine times to Rs 2.8 trillion, Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said on Tuesday.
Delivering his keynote address ahead of a panel discussion at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Annual Business Summit 2026 in the national capital, Singh said, “Under the armed forces’ 2047 vision, from 2040 onwards, India aims to become a fully integrated, self-reliant, all-domain military force capable of projecting power across the Indo-Pacific and beyond.”
The panel discussion was held on the theme, “Geostrategy, Supply Chains and Strategic Resilience: The New Imperative for Defence and Industry”.
Referring to the Mission Sudarshan Chakra initiative announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address last year, Singh said the “layered ballistic and air missile defence system”, intended to protect critical strategic and civilian infrastructure, is expected to mature between 2030 and 2040.
Underscoring that the country had historically been limited, at best, to assembling foreign defence equipment and had consequently remained vulnerable to geopolitical disruptions and supply-chain bottlenecks, Singh said, “India is on a transformative journey from being one of the world’s largest arms importers to becoming a global defence manufacturing hub… Aatmanirbharta (self-reliance) is not about protectionism, it’s about survival.”
Describing self-reliance as the cornerstone of the country’s defence posture, Singh highlighted that arms exports had skyrocketed to a record Rs 38,424 crore in FY26, marking a 62 per cent increase over the previous fiscal year.
Setting out the country’s targets for 2047 — domestic defence production output of Rs 8.8 trillion and arms exports of Rs 2.8 trillion — Singh said both goals were “entirely within our reach”.
Highlighting improved fund utilisation, the secretary said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) had awarded contracts worth almost Rs 4.5 trillion over the past one-and-a-half years, with over 70 per cent by value going to domestic industry.
Referring to the defence sector’s monopsonistic structure, with the government as the single large buyer and the bulk of future orders likely to continue originating from it, Singh said, “…the government’s use of its purchasing power as leverage and as a means to create a large defence industrial complex will be critical.”
For the same reason, he also stressed the importance of reforms to the defence procurement process, highlighting that while the Defence Procurement Manual 2025 levelled the playing field between the public and private sectors in revenue procurement for the armed services, the draft Defence Acquisition Procedure 2026 — which governs procurement under the capital expenditure head — proposes to compress acquisition timelines and boost indigenous manufacturing through simplified procurement categories, faster trial and approval processes, new acquisition pathways, and higher indigenous content mandates.
While assuring support for the domestic industry, Singh also laid out the government’s expectations: “Avoid overpromising, deliver on time, and refrain from complaining against one another during the procurement process, as this leads to delays.”
Citing the changing nature of warfare and the growing use of ballistic missiles — once confined to the nuclear realm — as tools of conventional warfare during the panel discussion that followed, Singh said the time had come, in his view, to be willing to transfer technology to the private sector for various types of ballistic missiles. “…you will see steps taken by the government to ensure sufficient private-sector involvement in that space as well,” he added.
While assuring that the policy of providing a level playing field for the private and public sectors extends to defence exports as well, Singh revealed that the government is also in the process of creating a separate line-of-credit scheme, specifically for less-developed countries, to boost foreign sales of Indian military equipment.
Source: Business Standard
